Bleed air may be used by many systems on an aircraft. For example, in a nitrogen generation system, bleed air may be used for nitrogen generation to inert fuel tanks to remove potential hazardous situations arising from combustible combinations of oxygen, fuel vapors, and ignition sources. In operation, the nitrogen generation system may extracts bleed air and cool its temperature through the use of outside ram air within an air-to-air exchanger. In the process of cooling the temperature of the bleed air, waste heat may be expelled with exhaust. The regulated air may then be supplied to a pressurized chamber, such as an air separation stage, where the air exhaust from the pressurized chamber or air drawn out of the pressurized chamber may be separated into nitrogen enriched air and oxygen enriched air. The nitrogen enriched air may thereafter be supplied to the fuel tanks.
Ram air may be utilized as a coolant within the air-to-air heat exchanger. The aircraft may utilize ram air induction systems to capture air as a function of the movement of the aircraft. The air may be channeled through conduits which lead to the air-to-air heat exchanger. If the ram air induction is designed properly, when the aircraft is in motion, sufficient airflow may be provided to the air-to-air heat exchanger as the aircraft travels through an air medium.
Air drag may directly affect the amount of energy used to overcome the amount of resistance produced by the air drag. Consequently, when more ram air is taken in for cooling bleed air, the greater the drag placed upon the aircraft.
Therefore, a need exists to provide a system and method to overcome the above issues.